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Hazelnut Tartelettes With Spiced Creme Fraiche Parfait

January 9, 2009

We all procrastinate at one point or another, and we all have different ways to go about that. B. for example will spend an hour doing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen (which I will mess up in 2 seconds flat) before grading papers. The other day he suggested we put down the Christmas tree and decorations. Like a kid who does not want to go back to school, it makes me sad to take the decorations down and to realize it will be "one whole year" before Christmas. As soon as his back was turned I started cleaning and reorganizing the pantry instead. It needed it after the holidays when a bunch of things started to get shoved in there due to lack of time, focus and general "I'll deal with it after the holidays"...so you see I was actually working my end of the deal.

In that little pantry winter cleaning, I reorganized the nuts and spices and set a bunch aside feeling inspired by some hazelnuts, cardamom, nutmeg, star anise, cloves...the scent was intoxicating. The perfect post holiday antidote: more seasonal winter spices. I made a pomander with some of the cloves, mixed some cardamon with Meyer lemon zest and sugar and that's when it hit me... hard... I just wanted to eat it... the bowl... of spiced lemon sugar.

So I procrastinated some more and made some sable breton dough with lemon zest in it and baked large cookie to use as bases for tartelettes. I shelled enough hazelnuts to make a variation on my beloved's beloved pecan tart, with honey and cloves. I still had other spices dancing in my head and in front of my nose that I made a quick spiced creme fraiche frozen parfait to top the tarts with. Let's face it, pies, tarts, tartelettes, are good..even "naked" but a little ice cream does not really hurt either.

After lunch, B. started again with his desire to put away the decorations, push the furniture back where it was before we moved everything for Christmas dinner. My philosophy is furniture belongs where it feels good, where you are comfortable...and right then, right there in a quiet afternoon with a bright sunbeam coming through the window...it felt good. So I got up. And I went to the kitchen. Again. I put some sugar and water in a pan and I make caramel, and I played with sugar, making caramel twirls to decorate the tarts with, procrastinating a little longer. I made four tarts and we have been sharing one every night for dessert, so yes..."we" have been staring at the Christmas decorations for four days...Bliss...I could not make up my mind for the pictures I like best, so you get them all...oops!

Preheat oven to 350F. In a mixer, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the flour and salt and mix briefly to incorporate. Dump the mixture onto a lightly floured board and gather the dough into a smooth ball. Do not work the dough while in the mixer or it will toughen up. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. When the dough is nice and cold, roll it out to 1/8 inch thick on a lightly floured board or in between the sheets of plastic. You will have extra dough that you can save for another use in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen, well wrapped for up to 3 months.Cut out four 4-inch disks into the dough and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Let cool.

Preheat the oven to 275F.In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, dark brown sugar and honey until fully combined. Add the salt and butter and fold in the nuts with a spatula.Grease four 3 inch tartlet shells and fill with the batter. Or, place four 3 inch tart rings on a parchment paper line baking sheet (I wrap the rings with foil to make sure the batter does not sneak out) and divide the batter evenly among them.Bake for 30 minutes or until set and firm. Let cool. Run a knife along the edges of the tartlet shells and unmold carefully. Refrigerate until ready to use.

In a stand mixer or handheld mixer, combine the spices, egg yolks and 3 tablespoons of the sugar and whisk until pale and thick, about 3 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they have firm peaks, add the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar, one at a time, until the egg whites are glossy. With a spatula, hold the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture, working carefully not to deflate the batter. Wipe the bowl where the whites were with a paper towel and whip the creme fraiche and heavy cream together until thick, about 2 minutes. Fold this into the egg batter.Line a 8x11 inch baking pan with plastic wrap and pour in the parfait batter. Smooth the top with a spatula. Freeze until firm, about 1 hour.

To serve the tartelettes: place a nut tart on the cookie base and top with the spiced creme fraiche parfait. Serve at once.

hello tartelette. I discovered you thanks to Comida de Mama.I love your blog and your receipts, and I will try to copy some of them... can I suggest you to add an index if you have never thought to it? because there are so many receipts... anyway, maybe you have already thought to it and decided not to add, it rests a beautiful blog.bygiorgia

cleaning the pantry is one of my favorite things to do but it might be months before I do it sometimes. why is that? maybe i'm scared to find something in there? but it makes me feel so good afterwards... we still have our wreaths up on our doors. talk about procrastinating!

What a gorgeous presentation! I love the flavour combinations and the creme fraiche is a brilliant touch. I'm celebrating my 1st anniversary today, stop by for a visit if you can, and bring these tarts!!

Hey, if this is what comes out of procrastination, I don't mind if you never take down your decorations till it's Christmas again! ;) I love the unique presentation-- you rarely see these semi-nude tarts :)

So beautiful! I don't mind that you put all the pics in your post, they're all fabulous. Those caramel twirls, wow, I wish I could work caramel like that! :) I only took down my decorations last night. Like you, I was procrastinating. The house feels a little less warm this morning. Oh, well, until next year, I guess. :)

We have been known to leave decorations up in our house for several months, until spring actually, so the procrastinators' society is alive and well over here. Those are just gorgeous and sound delicious Helene, especially with the caramel twirls.

Helen, the photos are so beautiful! I specially like the one with the ingredients, and like David, I also thought I saw a piece of bacon strip..:)Taking down the tree is always sad, but then again, when next Christmas comes, we'll say "oh, the year went buy so fast..."

How bizarre. I was looking for a hazelnut tart recipe about an hour ago and didn't come across anything that sounded remotely decent. Just by chance I thought I would check your blog and see if you had made anything similar awhile back and what do you know, your most recent entry is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much for posting this. I'm really excited to make it tonight! :)

Anonymous- I don't understand why you feel disappointed. There is nothing disappointing about it. The elements are the same, the flavors are the same, the texture the same... just a different visual and shape. And also, this is not a restaurant trend. If you check out any decent pastry shop, you will see many tarts composed this way with a sable base, a custard and fruit on top.

I *just* took down our tree yesterday, but the ornaments are waiting alongside oodles of boxes. Not quite nostalgic -- more like lazy! I'm fascinated with that caramel spring looking thing and wondering how you made it...When do we get to see your book?

I know what you mean about procrastination. I should be looking for a job, but I've been using my blog to procrastinate. But then I'd rather be experimenting in the kitchen with some new ideas I picked up during my trip, so I end up procrastinating from my procrastination. This looks fantastic and I could have sworn I saw a piece of bacon sitting on the plate.

Helen, I'm always awed by your unbelievable talent and skill in pastry! Although mine will never turn out as stunning as yours, I cannot wait to tackle these tarts when I can walk again! Thanks for being such an inspiration!

Helen, I'm always awed by your unbelievable talent and skill in pastry! Although mine will never turn out as stunning as yours, I cannot wait to tackle these tarts when I can walk again! Thanks for being such an inspiration!

i know all about procrastinating as well lady! gorgeous tarts and i say you should make them any way you please. how could we have so many different blogs if we all stuck to the same old conventions? lovely as always helen!